“There’s something wicked in your town, what do you say we go and find it.”

Hanging an episode on a character that’s, on his best day, dull and unlikable was to the detriment of ‘The Tower,’ but the reset of ‘Going Home’ is still keeping things fresh and enthralling for now.

David doesn’t really merit the attention he got here, but maybe I’m thinking about it all wrong. He’s so far done nothing more than he’s supposed to, fulfilling his standard Prince duties as well as can be expected, so why not give him a chance to show he’s not as one dimensional as we think he is?

Unfortunately, the efforts here to give him more weight and depth didn’t really do much. I still don’t feel very much for him. I wouldn’t want to see him go anywhere, since Snow is such a central character and taking him away from here would be a step too far, but if he’s going to be given more screen-time then he needs to be doing something a lot more interesting.

I did like seeing Rapunzel make her debut, though, even if she wasn’t that far ahead of David in terms of personality. I commend the creative team for not making her the sole devotee of an episode and instead choosing to weave her into an episode based on a regular staple, but maybe her back story deserved a little more embellishment?

The search for the witch was the best part of the episode, and is infinitely more exciting than the fumbling around the jungle that we were subjected to during the first part of the season, and not just because Rebecca Mader is a lot of fun as Zelena. There genuinely seems to be a lot more at stake, and watching Zelena meddling in the lives of everyone is fun to watch, I just hope they cop on to her plan soon.

The series shouldn’t get too complacent. The fact that we’ve moved beyond the drained format of the previous two and a half seasons is commendable, but things need to keep moving or else they’ll risk falling into the same rut they were in at the start of the season.

3.5 out of 5 spinning needles

Plus

I’m glad that Rumple’s survival wasn’t kept as a huge secret for too long. Making everyone aware of his presence means that the story probably won’t be dragged out for too long.